Department Environmental Microbiology

Today, over 60 experts from research, federal and cantonal administration, the police, politics and hospitals are meeting to discuss the current status and future of wastewater monitoring in Switzerland. The current trends: a seasonal increase for influenza and the RSV virus, stagnating or even declining for coronavirus. We spoke to environmental engineer Christoph Ort, who, together with environmental microbiologist Tim Julian, established the field of wastewater-based epidemiology at Eawag and - in cooperation with external experts - is constantly adapting it.

Microorganisms in biofilms in rivers can break down harmful substances. Some are also able to degrade biocides, including the insect repellent diethyltoluamide (DEET) - or so it is thought. Researchers at the aquatic research institute Eawag have now discovered that DEET is degraded better when the proportion of treated wastewater in the water is high. They attribute this to specific enzymes that occur primarily where wastewater treatment plants return the water to the aquatic environment. However, the enzymes involved are not straightforward to predict.

More than half of the global population were estimated to lack safely managed drinking water services in a recent study lead by Eawag researchers. This is shown in a global map that researchers compiled using machine learning based on data from household surveys and data derived from Earth observations.

Researchers at Eawag have analysed wastewater for antibiotic-resistant coliform bacteria. Monitoring wastewater can help to observe trends and regional differences, independent of the actual cases of illness.

Legionella always interact with other organisms. Eawag researchers have characterised microbial communities and analysed their relationship to Legionella.

The number of microbes that acquire antibiotic resistance depends on the time at which the antibiotic is added. This is a conclusion reached by a research group at Eawag on the basis of experiments with genetically modified bacteria that glow in different colours when they exchange genetic information with each other.

The aquatic research institute Eawag has published its latest annual report and looks back on the year 2022. Water is at the heart of the most important environmental issues.

The genetic diversity of populations should decrease as they expand across space – but this is not the case with bacteria. Fungi play a role here.